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Part I: Reading Comprehension

Read the passages below. Then answer the questions that follow. Please note that there will be an additional reading component administered during the first workshop session.

Passage A:

It is frequently assumed that the mechanization of work has a revolutionary effect on the lives of the people who operate the new machines and on the society into which the machines have been introduced. For example, it has been suggested that the employment of women in industry took them out of the household, their traditional sphere, and fundamentally altered their position in society. In the nineteenth century, when women began to enter factories, Jules Simon, a French politician, warned that by doing so, women would give up their femininity. Friedrich Engels, however, predicted that women would be liberated from the "social, legal, and economic subordination" of the family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of "the whole female sex...into public industry." Observers thus differed concerning the social desirability of mechanization's effects, but they agreed that it would transform women's lives.

Historians, particularly those investigating the history of women, now seriously question this assumption of transforming power. They conclude that such dramatic technological innovations as the spinning jenny, the sewing machine, the typewriter, and the vacuum cleaner have not resulted in equally dramatic social changes in women's economic position or in the prevailing evaluation of women's work. The employment of young women in textile mills during the Industrial Revolution was largely an extension of an older pattern of employment of young, single women as domestics. It was not the change in office technology, but rather the separation of secretarial work, previously seen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers, from administrative work that in the 1880's created a new class of "dead-end" jobs, thenceforth considered "women's work." The increase in the numbers of married women employed outside the home in the twentieth century had less to do with the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it did with their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool of single women workers, previously, in many cases, the only women employers would hire.

Women's work has changed considerably in the past 200 years, moving from the household to the office or the factory, and later becoming mostly white-collar instead of blue-collar work. Fundamentally, however, the conditions under which women work have changed little since before the Industrial Revolution: the segregation of occupations by gender, lower pay for women as a group, jobs that require relatively low levels of skill and offer women little opportunity for advancement all persist, while women's household labor remains demanding. Recent historical investigation has led to a major revision of the notion that technology is always inherently revolutionary in it effects on society. Mechanization may even have slowed any change in the traditional position of women both in the labor market and in the home.

1. The effects of the mechanization of women's work have not borne out the frequently held assumption that new technology is inherently revolutionary.
2. Recent studies have shown that mechanization revolutionizes a society's traditional values and the customary roles of its members.
3. Mechanization has caused the nature of women's work to change since the Industrial Revolution.
4. The mechanization of work creates whole new classes of jobs that did not previously exist.
5. The mechanization of women's work, while extremely revolutionary in its effects, has not, on the whole, had the deleterious effects that some critics had feared.

1. sewing machine
2. vacuum cleaner
3. typewriter
4. telephone
5. spinning jenny

1. Textile mills
2. Private households
3. Offices
4. Factories
5. Small shops

1. Statistics showing that the majority of women now occupy white-collar positions.
2. Interviews with married men indicating that they are now doing some household tasks.
3. Surveys of the labor market documenting the recent creation of a new class of jobs in electronics in which women workers outnumber men four to one.
4. Census results showing that working women's wages and salaries are, on the average, as high as those of working men.
5. Enrollment figures from universities demonstrating that increasing numbers of young women are choosing to continue their education beyond the undergraduate level.

1. They did not employ women in factories.
2. They tended to employ single rather than married women.
3. They employed women in only those jobs that were related to women's traditional household work.
4. They resisted technological innovations that would radically change women's roles in the family.
5. They hired women only when qualified men were not available to fill the open positions.

1. Their work provides insights important to those examining social phenomena affecting the lives of both sexes.
2. Their work can only be used cautiously by scholars in other disciplines.
3. Because they concentrate only on the role of women in the workplace, they draw more reliable conclusions than do other historians.
4. While highly interesting, their work has not had an impact on most historians' current assumptions concerning the revolutionary effect of technology in the workplace.
5. They oppose further mechanization of work, which, according to their findings, tends to perpetuate existing inequalities in society.

1. It sums up the general points concerning the mechanization of work made in the passage as a whole.
2. It draws a conclusion concerning the effects of the mechanization of work which goes beyond the evidence presented in the passage as a whole.
3. It restates the point concerning technology made in the sentence immediately preceding it.
4. It qualifies the author's agreement with scholars who argue for a major revision in the assessment of the impact of mechanization on society.
5. It suggests a compromise between two seemingly contradictory views concerning the effects of mechanization on society.

Passage B:

By 1950, the results of attempts to relate brain processes to mental experience appeared rather discouraging. Such variations in size, shape, chemistry, conduction speed, excitation threshold, and the like as had been demonstrated in nerve cells remained negligible in significance for any possible correlation with the manifold dimensions of mental experience.

Near the turn of the century, it has been suggested by Hering that different modes of sensation, such as pain, taste, and sight, might be correlated with the discharge if specific kinds of nervous energy. However, subsequently developed methods of recording and analyzing never potentials failed to reveal any such qualitative diversity. It was possible to demonstrate by other methods the presence of refined structural differences among neuron types; however proof was lacking that the quality of the impulse or its conduction was influenced by these differences, which seemed instead to influence the developmental patterning of the neural circuits. Although qualitative variance among nerve energies was never rigidly disproved, the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the opposing view, namely, that never impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as "common currency" throughout the nervous system. According to this theory, it is not the quality of the sensory nerve impulses that determines the diverse conscious sensations they produce, but, rather, the different areas of the brain into which they discharge. And there is some evidence for this view, in one experiment, when an electric stimulus was applied to a given sensory field of the cerebral cortex of a conscious human subject, it produced a sensation of the appropriate modality for that particular locus, that is, a visual sensation from the visual cortex, and auditory sensation from the auditory cortex, and so on. Other experiments revealed slight variations in the size, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as psychoneural correlations were concerned, the obvious similarities of the sensory fields to each other seemed much more remarkable than any of the minute differences.

However, cortical locus, in itself, turned out to have little explanatory value. Studies showed that sensations as diverse as those of red, black, green, and white, or touch, cold, warmth, movement, pain, posture, and pressure apparently may arise through activation of the same cortical areas. What seemed to remain was that some kind of differential patterning effects in the central distribution of impulses counts. In short, brain theory suggested a correlation between mental experience and the activity of relatively homogeneous nerve-cell units conducting essentially homogeneous impulses through homogeneous cerebral tissue. To match the multiple dimensions of mental experience psychologists could only point to a limitless variation in the spatiotemporal patterning of nerve impulses.

8. According to the author, up until 1950, efforts to establish that brain processes and mental experience are related would most likely have been met with

1. vexation
2. irritability
3. discouragement
4. neutrality
5. hostility

9. The author mentions "common currency" in primarily in order to emphasize the

1. lack of differentiation among nerve impulses in human beings
2. similarity of the sensations that all human beings experience
3. similarities in the views of scientists who have studied the human nervous system
4. continuous passage of nerve impulses through the nervous system
5. recurrent questioning by scientists of an accepted explanation about the nervous system

10. The of the experiment in which various sensory fields of brain were electrically stimulated, reinforces the theory that

1. the mere existence of various cortical areas does not explain the diversity of psychological experience
2. qualitative diversity in nerve potentials can now be studies more accurately
3. sensory stimuli are heterogeneous and are greatly influenced by the nerve sensors they produce
4. cognitive experience manifested by sensory nerve impulses are influence by the area of the brain stimulated
5. differentiation in neural modalities influences the length of nerve transmissions

11. The passage suggests that there has been some proof that the portion of the brain prompted by sensory stimulus influences

1. the quality of the nerve impulses
2. the modality of the sensory response
3. physiological differences within a modality

1. I only
2. II only
3. I and II only
4. I and III only
5. II and III only

12. The passage can best be characterized as a consideration of the various theories about the

1. physiology of the brain
2. correlation of neural circuits
3. functions of different areas of the cortex in mental experience
4. workings of sensory perception
5. correspondence of brain functions to mental experience

13. It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s assessment of the theory that various parts of the brain regulate the perceptions yielded by sensory nerve impulses is that

1. its rationale is believable but has yet to be fully sustained
2. it is the most accurate explanation of nerve stimulus known
3. it had been refuted by recent developments in neurology
4. there is some evidence to corroborate it but it can not completely account for the full range of mental experience
5. there exists some empirical data to prove its validity

14. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following exhibits the LEAST qualitative variation?

1. nerve cells
2. nerve impulses
3. cortical areas
4. spatial patterns of nerve impulses
5. temporal patterns of nerve impulses

Passage C:

A Marxist sociologist has argued that racism stems from the class struggle that is unique to the capitalist system--that racial prejudice is generated by capitalists as a means of controlling workers. His thesis works relatively well when applied to discrimination against Blacks in the United States, but his definition of racial prejudice as "racially-based negative prejudments in a given region of ethnic competition," can be interpreted as also including hostility toward such ethnic groups as the Chinese in California and the Jews in medieval Europe. However, since prejudice against these latter peoples was not inspired by capitalists, he has to reason that such antagonisms were not really based on race. He disposes thusly (albeit unconvincingly) of both capitalism and the early twentieth-century discrimination against Oriental people in California, which, inconveniently, was instigated by workers.

15. Information in the passage can be found to respond to which of the following questions?

1. Why are different ethnic groups prejudiced against each other?
2. Why is fundamental to the fostering of prejudicial feelings?
3. How similar are the types of prejudices experienced by European Jews and the Chinese in California?
4. How does the Marxist sociologist account for the existence of prejudice?
5. What data does the sociologist supply to uphold this theory?

16. The author believes that the Marxist sociologist’s theory about the emergence of racial prejudice is

1. commonplace
2. dubious
3. insulting
4. perplexing
5. profound

17. It can be inferred from the passage that the Marxist sociologist would assert that in the absence of a capitalist system, racial prejudice would be

1. widespread
2. prohibited
3. rejected
4. indulged
5. insubstantial

18. According to the passage, the Marxist sociologist’s chain of reasoning required him to assert that prejudice toward Oriental people in California was

1. directed primarily against the Chinese
2. similar in origin to prejudice against the Jews
3. understood by Oriental people as ethnic competition
4. provoked by workers
5. nonracial in character

Part II: Written Summary

This section presents a passage for you to summarize in your own words.

Your summary should effectively communicate the main idea and essential points of the passage. You are expected to identify the relevant information and communicate it clearly and concisely in your own words.

The final version of your summary should conform to the conventions of edited American English, should be written legibly, and should be your own original work.

"Ready, Read!"

by

Nicholas Lemann

Most discussion of public education in the United States begins with the premise that big, government-run school systems no longer work. The way to provide a good education to all children, especially poor children, is to turn over control of public schools to smaller, more local, and possibly private operators -- to decentralize authority. At the center of the debate is a contest between two ideas: vouchers and charter schools. Vouchers are checks from the government that are issued to parents and earmarked for education; they are redeemable at both private and public schools. Charter schools are new public schools operated by independent groups. "We must ... bring more choice and competition into public education," President Bill Clinton said last year, in calling for the establishment of 3,000 charter schools. Both ideas address the problems in public education by walking away from them

The rhetoric of failure is simply wrong. There are 87,000 public schools in this country, with 45 million students -- a sixth of the U.S. population. Enrollment is increasing rapidly. The best measure of public schools' performance, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, has shown modest but steady overall gains since it was first administered, in 1970. One has to belong to the small but is proportionately influential subculture that interacts only with private education to believe that public education -- rather than specific public schools -- has failed. The total enrollment in private, nonsectarian schools where the annual tuition is more than $5,000 is about 400,000 -- less than one percent of public school enrollment. Catholic-school enrollment is 2.5 million. Public education is by far the largest and most important function performed by government in this country. In no way is it in systemic crisis.

In the public schools that can fairly be described as having failed, most of which are in poor urban neighborhoods, what is actually taking place is a great and largely unremarked centralization of authority. The trend is diffuse, and its precise dimensions are difficult to limn. In at least a thousand American public schools, it is safe to say, outside control has replaced local autonomy during the 1990s. This has affected many more schools and students than has the devolution of authority through voucher programs or charter schools.

During the 1980s many states began imposing measurements of performance on their public schools, usually in the form of obligatory standardized tests in reading and math. (Bill Clinton first gained national attention by doing this in Arkansas.) In this decade, when individual schools or entire districts have persistently turned in poor scores on these tests, outside authorities have often moved in. The school systems of Chicago, Hartford, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and three cities in New Jersey, among other places, are no longer under the control of the municipal school superintendent. The Pennsylvania legislature is threatening to take over Philadelphia's system. In other cities, such as San Francisco and San Antonio, the school superintendent has imposed "reconstitution" on the worst- performing schools, meaning that the entire staff has been required to reapply for employment and the school has been "redesigned."

In many of these cases, after the change in authority the schools have adopted one of about a dozen national school designs that cover such areas as governance, relations with parents and the neighborhood, teaching techniques, and, especially, curriculum. Many schools that have not been taken over or reconstituted (for example, dozens of schools in Memphis and Miami) are also using these "whole school" designs. Of the three most popular -- Success for All, Accelerated Schools, and the School Development Program, all designed by university professors -- the first two have each been adopted by more than a thousand schools across the country, and the third by 700.

The outline emerges of a future in which schools that aren't doing their job will lose their independence and will have to adopt a standard mode of operation that has demonstrated good results. This is not what most people think of as the direction in which public education is moving. Even Clinton's constant calls for national education standards mean the setting of goals for what all students should know, not dictating the day-to-day operations of schools. If failure in the public schools is resulting not in decentralization but in the imposition of a template, then we should know it -- and think about whether this is a good idea.

 

Attach your summary as a separate document!

Part III: Essay

This section consists of one writing assignment. You are asked to prepare a composition on an assigned topic.

Your composition should effectively communicate a whole message for the stated purpose. You will be assessed on your ability to express, organize, and support opinions and ideas. You will not be assessed on the position you express.

The final version of your composition should conform to the conventions of edited American English, should be written legibly, and should be your original work.

Respond to the Following:

Each generation has milestones that help establish its identity. For instance, the generation that came of age in the 1940s might point to World War II, the integration of baseball, and the Soviet Union's detonation of a nuclear weapon as defining social and political developments. Similarly, the generation of the 1960s might list the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, and Apollo 11 as the critical events of their youth.

In a carefully written essay, define what you feel is a pivotal social or political moment of your generation and discuss the likely impact that this event will have on your life and the lives of your peers.

Attach your essay as a separate document!

Part IV: Vocabulary and Terminology

Respond to the following items in the space provided.

1. Antecedent
2. Predicate
3. Clause
4. Antonyms
5. Interjection
6. Egalitarian

Part V: Sentence Corrections

Each of the following sentences contain one grammatical error. Rewrite the sentences in proper grammatical form.

1. To express themselves, graffiti decorate walls.
2. An examination is when you are tested on what you know.
3. My mother a teacher.
4. The student should put their books under their desks.
5. Three reasons why steel companies keep losing money are that their plants are inefficient, high labor costs, and foreign competition is increasing.
6. She is very committed to her work, she devotes almost all her time to patient care.
7. The workers removed all the furniture from the room and cleaned it.
8. Lynn ran to first, rounded the base, and keeps running until she slides into second.
9. The voter resist changes.
10. If a person works hard, you can accomplish a great deal.